Category Archives: Garden Advice

10 Tips for a Huge Cucumber Harvest

April 16, 2026 Jordan Charbonneau Leave a comment

Cucumbers are a must-have crop for gardeners. Their cool crunch and refreshing flavor are an integral part of summer. While growing cucumber plants is great for beginners, there are a few tricks you need to know if you want a big harvest.

Choose the Right Cucumber Variety for Your Garden

We carry dozens of cucumber varieties, and choosing the right one for your garden can be overwhelming. We can divide cucumbers into pickling, slicing, burpless, bush, and specialty cucumbers. These cucumber types have different growing habits, flavors, and textures.

You can learn more about selecting the best variety for you in our post, Pickling, Burpless, Bush: Selecting the Right Cucumber for Your Garden.

You should also consider disease or pest resistant varieties, especially if you’ve had issues in the past. For example, if your cucumbers always suffer from Downey mildew, look for varieties in our catalog marked with “dm” for Downey mildew resistance, like Ashley Cucumber.

See our full key for disease and pest resistance here.

Take Extra Care When Starting Cucumbers Indoors

Direct sowing works great for cucumbers, but if you want a jump on the season, you can start them indoors. That said, cucumber seedlings are fussy. Keep them moist but not soaked to avoid fungal issues like dampening off.

Cucumbers don’t tolerate root disturbance at all. Use biodegradable pots or be very careful while transplanting to avoid root disturbance. Hold back a few extra seedlings to fill in any gaps in the garden if seedlings fail.

Don’t Start Cucumbers Too Soon

Cucumbers are warm weather loving plants. It can be tempting to start them early, but that can do more harm them good. Wait to sow seeds or transplant out cucumbers until one to two weeks after your last frost and the soil has warmed. Cucumbers germinate best when the soil temperature reaches 68° F.

Prepare the Soil

A huge cucumber harvest starts with warm, loose, fertile soil. To produce well, cucumber plants need healthy root systems. To help those develop, it’s best to start with a soil test. Cucumbers do best when the pH is between 6.0 and 6.8.

To add fertility and organic matter to the soil, add several inches of aged manure or finished compost to the bed before planting. If you have compacted soil, you can also help loosen it with a garden or broad fork.

Cover Your Cucumbers

If you’ve struggled with cucumbers in the past because of pest and disease issues, it might be worth using row cover. Row cover is a lightweight fabric that you can use over flexible wire hoops to screen out pests.

It’s highly effective. However, it blocks out pollinators just as well as it blocks pests. If you choose to use row cover, you’ll need to remove it when the plants are flowering or hand-pollinate your plants, which we’ll discuss below.

Water Frequently

Ever harvested a wonky cucumber with a thin, tapered end? Incomplete pollination, heat stress, or inconsistent watering may be the cause. Cucumbers are 95% water! If you want a massive cucumber harvest, you need to stay on top of watering.

For container gardens or small beds, you can set a phone alert to water, but for larger gardens, it may be helpful to set up irrigation on a timer. Watering the roots with drip irrigation or soaker hoses, rather than the leaves with a sprinkler, can also be helpful in reducing fungal diseases.

You should also avoid touching the leaves and vines while the plants are wet to avoid spreading fungal diseases.

Mulch Thickly

You can also avoid the wonky cucumbers and move towards a great harvest by adding a thick layer of mulch as soon as the plants are large enough. You can use straw, grass clippings, old leaves, or wood chips.

This is especially critical if you haven’t trellised your cucumbers. If you let your cucumbers sprawl, mulch will prevent the fruit from lying on the ground.

Feed Your Plants

Cucumbers are heavy feeders. For a huge cucumber harvest, your plants need significant levels of nutrients, especially nitrogen and phosphorus. Soil preparation, as discussed above, is critical, but cucumbers also benefit from a second feeding.

To help support fruit production, side-dress your cucumbers when the vines begin to flower. You can use aged manure or compost, a traditional fertilizer, or a liquid fertilizer like fish emulsion or liquid kelp.

You May Need to Hand Pollinate

If your plants are flowering, but you’re not seeing any cucumbers forming, you may have a pollination issue. You need at least two or three plants for pollination, but the more plants you have, the better the pollination rate will probably be.

Cucumbers form both male and female flowers. The female flowers all have a small immature fruit at the base. If the female flowers aren’t pollinated, they will drop off the plant and fail to produce. Lack of bees, extreme heat, or being in a closed greenhouse or row cover can prevent pollination.

You can remedy this by hand-pollinating the flowers. Take a cotton swab or paintbrush and gently brush the center of a male flower, gathering pollen from the flower’s anther. Then brush the pollen onto the center of the female flower, called the stigma. The bristles or swab will collect and distribute the pollen just like a bee’s hairs. Repeat this process on all the female flowers.

Harvest Frequently

It sometimes seems like cucumbers can go from tiny to baseball bat size overnight. They can also be surprisingly adept at hiding amongst the foliage. Keeping up with harvesting will help you catch your cucumbers at the right stage, but it’s also critical for maintaining production.

Harvest your cucumbers every one to three days. Your cucumber plants will stop producing if you don’t harvest them often enough.

Garden Advice

10 Tips for Starting Native Plants from Seeds

April 7, 2026 Jordan Charbonneau Leave a comment

We’ve been getting more and more interest in native seeds, and with good reason! Native plants help support pollinators and native wildlife, control erosion, reduce irrigation needs, and eliminate the need for pesticides and fertilizers. We’ve been slowly adding more native varieties to our offerings at Southern Exposure, but this process isn’t always simple. Many native varieties are tricky to grow from seed, making them challenging for us to maintain and challenging for our customers to grow. Thankfully, we have found some varieties that work well for us and methods to help them thrive. Here are some of the native seeds we carry and tips to help you get them started in your garden.

Native Seeds at Southern Exposure Seed Exchange

Here are some varieties we carry at Southern Exposure that are native to North America.

*Ginseng and goldenseal are available as rhizomes.

Native is relative to your location. While a few of these grow throughout the United States, many had a much more limited range. For example, Lemon Bergamot is native to the Appalachians, while Echinacea Angustifolia is native to the dry prairies of the central Midwest.

Echinacea purpurea seeds. Temdor, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

Follow the Seed Starting Instructions Carefully

Most native varieties are more complex to start from seed than the vegetables we carry. Without proper care, they may have low germination rates, so it’s critical to follow seed-starting instructions carefully. We’ll discuss a couple of methods you may need below.

Stratify Seeds if Necessary

Many native seeds have a hard seed coat. In nature, the plant drops the seed in the fall, and then the seed coat slowly breaks down during the freeze and thaw cycles of winter. After the coat breaks down, the seed can germinate in spring.

Gardeners can mimic this process using a method called cold stratification. Basically, you sow seeds indoors and then place them in a refrigerator for 2 to 4 months. See our full guide to cold stratification.

Try Sowing Outdoors in the Fall

You can also sow many seeds outdoors in the fall. If you live in an area with cold, moist conditions, your seeds will naturally go through the stratification process. This works well with many flowers like coreopsis, echinacea, and butterfly weed.

Butterfly Weed Seed pods splitting open releasing seeds — Butterfly Weed Seeds (Asclepias tuberosa) User:SB_Johnny, CC BY-SA 3.0 <http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/>, via Wikimedia Commons

Scarify Seeds if Necessary

Some native species with a hard seed coat require weakening of the seed coat in order to germinate. Usually, these are large-seeded varieties, like those in the legume family.

To scarify the seeds, rub them between medium-grit sandpaper. You just want to abrade the seeds a bit, but don’t crush them. Alternatively, for very large seeds, you can use a knife to nick the seed coat.

If your variety requires both scarification and stratification, scarify the seeds first.

Surface Sow Small Seeds

Many varieties with tiny seeds require light to germinate. Always double-check specific instructions, but for most tiny seeds, you just want to gently press them into the surface of the soil. If you’re starting them indoors, make sure they’re under lights right away.

Don’t let the seeds dry out. If you’re growing them in trays or containers, you can bottom water them to avoid disturbing the delicate seeds. You can also gently spray them with a plant mister.

Soak Large Seeds Before Planting

Soaking large-seeded varieties can help you get a jump on the germination process. Try soaking them overnight before planting. This helps to soften the hard seed coats and hydrate the seed embryos.

Remove Grass and Other Weeds from Your Planting Site

As rugged as native plants are, they can still have trouble competing with common grass and weed species found in our lawns, especially when they’re small. It’s best to remove any grass and weeds from your planting site before getting started. You can use tilling, solarization with tarps, or a combination of methods to achieve a blank slate to begin your native garden.

Rudbeckia blooming — Christian Fischer, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

Provide Consistent Moisture During the First Year for Perennials

While many native perennials are drought-tolerant once established, it’s best to provide consistent moisture when the plants are young to help them get established. While nature isn’t always so kind, we want as many of our plants to succeed as possible. During the first year, try to keep soil should be moist but not soggy.

See your specific variety to learn more about its requirements. Some prefer more moisture than others.

Avoid Unnecessary Fertilizer and Amendments

Most native species aren’t adapted to rich garden soil. In fact, some hardy species will put on extensive foliar growth at the expense of root and stem growth in nitrogen-rich soil. This can cause weak plants that lodge in high winds. Over-fertilizing may also negatively impact flowering and seed production.

Don’t Over-Mulch

Mulch can be a great thing. It helps to keep soil moist and prevent weeds, but with natives, you can have too much of a good thing. Thick mulch can hold too much moisture and cause root crowns to rot. It can also prevent native, ground-nesting bees from accessing the soil.

When using a mulch, opt for a natural mulch that will break down quickly like compost, well-rotted manure, shredded leaves, or pine needles. Use two inches or less around native plants. Once they’re established, many native plants don’t need mulch at all, they’ll spread and cover the soil themselves.

Native plants offer many benefits, but they can be tricky to grow from seed. Using these techniques can help ensure your native garden is a success.

Garden Advice

Tips for Growing Watermelons in Small Spaces

April 3, 2026 Jordan Charbonneau Leave a comment

Nothing says summer like a fresh watermelon! While many gardeners enjoy these tasty treats, many worry about their long, sprawling vines and intensive needs. Thankfully, it is possible to grow delicious melons in a small garden with a few simple tips.

Select Early, Smaller Varieties

Not all watermelons produce huge 25 pounds fruits. There are many smaller varieties that have more compact vines and produce earlier than their large counterparts, but they’re just as sweet! Here are a few of our favorite options:

Early Moonbeam Watermelon with yellow flesh — Early Moonbeam Watermelon

Plant At Least Three Vines

Watermelons require pollination to set fruit. Try to grow at least three plants to ensure your watermelons receive adequate pollination.

Use Sturdy Trellises

Watermelons will climb trellises, allowing you to save tons of space in your small garden! Just beware: these long vines and heavy fruits demand sturdy structures. Metal cattle panels with metal T-posts work well.

As the fruits develop, they will need extra support to avoid damaging the vine. Use pieces of old t-shirts, nylon stockings, or other stretchy material to create a little sling or hammock under each watermelon.

Feed Your Watermelons Well

Watermelons are heavy feeders! To grow great melons, you need fertile soil. There’s no way around it. Especially in a small garden that sees a lot of use, it’s critical to provide extra nutrients. Start the season by adding several inches of finished compost to your beds.

Side-dress or fertilize your watermelons twice during the season. Once when the vines begin to run and again when they have just begun to set fruit. You can use an organic fertilizer or other amendment that’s rich in nitrogen.

Use Large Containers

As long as you have good trellises and can feed your plants, you can even grow watermelons in containers. Large containers like those made from upcycled totes or blue 55-gallon barrels work well. No matter what you use, ensure your container has drainage holes in the bottom.

Watermelon plants growing in containers will demand more attention than field-grown plants. You’ll need to water and fertilize more frequently.

Young watermelon fruit hanging from trellis — Earth100, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

Avoid Crowding Your Plants

Plant watermelons 12 to 18 inches apart. It can be tempting to squeeze as many plants in as possible, but this can weaken your plants and reduce your harvest. If you plant them too closely, your watermelons will compete for nutrients and space.

Watermelons are also highly susceptible to fungal diseases like Alternaria leaf spot, anthracnose, and gummy stem blight, especially in humid climates like the Southeast. Appropriate spacing will help ensure your plants get good airflow and reduce the risk of disease.

Keep Up with Weeding When Plants are Small

Weeds compete with young watermelon plants for nutrients, moisture, and light. They also restrict airflow, which can contribute to fungal diseases. As the plants begin to grow and sprawl, weeding without damaging the vines becomes tricky. Keeping up with weeds when the plants are small is key.

Watch for Pests

No matter how big or small your garden, you might find aphids and cucumber beetles. Encouraging beneficial insects and managing your garden well can help prevent these pests, but once you spot them, you’ll want to take immediate action.

If you have just a couple of plants, handpicking into a bucket of soapy water can be an option with cucumber beetles. For both the beetles and aphids, you can also spray the plants with soapy water. Do this in the evening to avoid burning the vines.

Learn more about cucumber beetles in our post Cucumber Beetle Management and Prevention. For more about aphids, visit the post Aphids, Scale Insects, and Mealy Bugs.

Water Watermelons Wisely

Watermelons thrive with consistently moist soil, but how you water matters. As discussed above, watermelon plants are sensitive to fungal diseases. Aim to keep your soil moist but not soggy. Use soaker hoses, irrigation, or hand watering to direct water directly to the plants’ roots. Avoid wetting the leaves as much as possible.

Manage the Blossoms Later in the Season

If you live in a northern climate or are growing late-season watermelons, your plants may continue producing blossoms as autumn approaches. It’s likely that these blooms won’t have the chance to reach maturity before frost.

If you notice new blossoms forming within 50 days of your average first frost, it’s best to pinch them off. This will ensure the remaining larger melons have plenty of energy to ripen before the frost.

Watermelons are one highlight of summer. With careful management, you can grow amazing watermelon vines even in a small garden.